@teamushiten (a slightly late) ushiten week 2026 day 2: royalty AU!
more under the cut, it's a long one!

Love Begins

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@hypnos28
@teamushiten (a slightly late) ushiten week 2026 day 2: royalty AU!
more under the cut, it's a long one!
Shen Yuan transmigrates into one of Bingge's wives and after an adjustment period it like, ok this isn't too bad actually.
He's not super thrilled with the new body but it's not that bad really. And as long as he plays it cool and lets Binghe occasionally have his way with him he's 100% safe from all the bad things in PIDW by virtue of being the protagonist's woman! And when Bingge isn't around he can cultivate (cool!) and read his way through the extensive library (so cool!) and anything else his little shut in heart desires!
And ok yeah there's the, sigh, doing the wifely duties bit but he's wife like, 63 so it isn't happening often and besides, his lady body is clearly into Binghe, and he's a straight guy yeah but Binghe is Binghe everyone wants him! So he's willing enough.
So the Event finally happens and SY gets his world absolutely rocked by Bingge... And then when Bingge's about to get up and leave (he Does Not spend the night ever) his wife pulls him close. He thinks that she just wants to go again- which is weird enough, he always completely satisfies his wives- but she just cuddles up to him and plays with his hair and tells him what a good husband and man he is and then starts humming. And Bingge stays, it's...nice and he is tired, his wife is right he works so hard he does deserve to relax...
He wakes up in his wife's arms the next morning utterly bewildered. And then SY helps him bath and does his hair and tries to get him breakfast but he insists he's busy just to get away from her to get his head straight. SY doesn't press of course he just tells Bingge to eat something before he gets into any fights.
Bingge is sure this wife must want something... But a quick background check reminds him this wife is one of the ones he saved from a magic crystal, she has no family, they all died centuries ago... So his wife is not seeking any political gain...
He eventually just goes and asks her, and SY is like oh no I'm peachy! Husband could come with me to the library though if he's not busy? SY is looking for books on monsters!
Bingge is very quickly wife-beamed, which is convenient for him because he's already married to this wife. And SY has no idea it's happened. Well, the other wives are getting cattier the more often Bingge spends the night, but why would he want to be around them when their attitudes are so bad?? (There's been more than one assassination attempt that SY missed completely. Didn't even notice he was in danger.)
But there's a problem. This is not a clean transmigration. The longer SY is in Wife 63's body the more he realizes she's still here too, suppressed by him in her own mind! He isn't sure what to do about it, he can't talk to her directly and what he does get from her as she slowly wakes up and gets stronger is... Hostile to say the least.
SY tries to play it cool, he's fine everything is fine. But Bingge notices the changes, especially as the original wife gets strong enough to start taking partial control of the body back.
Eventually he does a medical check and Oh no! His favorite wife he was considering making his empress is possessed! She's being so so brave and trying to downplay her symptoms but he knows she's suffering.
Bingge arranges for an exorcism and SY goes along willingly. After all he is the bad guy here technically, and the invading spirit. Surely Binghe will be happier with his wife not controlled by a straight man! (I mean yeah the sex is fantastic but he can probably tell it's a little gay somehow!)
Still he's going to miss Binghe- assuming this exorcism doesn't just kill him- so before the ritual starts he makes sure to tell Binghe he loves him (totally platonically) and only wants him to be happy.
It takes Binghe five minutes post exorcism to figure out that he got it backwards. He wasn't saving his beloved wife from a ghost! He's cast out his beloved ghost in favor of some lady who's pissed he didn't realize she was possessed immediately!
He needs to get his perfect ghost wife husband ("the spirit I expelled was actually male " the exorcist says.) back! And find a body to put him in since Wife 63 is refusing to surrender her body again for some reason!
#SY is going to wake up in a plant body six months later very confused
How to read Fate/Strange Fake Light Novel
Read the First Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.1 (2015) PDF
Read the Second Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.2 PDF
Read the Third Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.3 PDF
Read the Fourth Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.4 PDF
Read the Fifth Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.5 PDF
Read the Sixth Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.6 PDF
Read the Seventh Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.7 PDF
Read the Eighth Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.8 PDF
Read the Nineth Volume: Fate/strange Fake Vol.9 PDF
Volume 9 PDF updated 2/3/2025:
Volume 9 updated and completed
Note: From this point onwards I don't think I'll be able to keep up with the updates. I barely read it anymore, a lot of years have passed and I have more pressing matters to attend IRL so these PDFs will only work as a quality of life for those that want PDF reading but are not desperate to read the updates as soon a translator picks them up. Sorry for the inconvenience.
It's all about the sauce:
The chapters translations are made by OtherSideofSky and Comun. You can read the original raw text submitted by the translator in The Beast Lair along with epub versions.
About the Manga:
You should also read the manga. It has a sharp and beautiful art style (by Morii) and complements the story already being told in the LN.
Credits to:
Thanks to Nakula for translating the initial version (2008) of F/SF Vol 1, and Mew and Food for the extra chapters to complete the final Volume 1. Thanks to OtherSideofSky for translating the Volumes 2 to 6 and Comun for Volume 7 onwards. And thanks to Ryohgo Narita for writing Strange Fake!
I suggest following me on Twitter if you so desire getting updates when I... update... these PDFs. It's also a better way of communicating with me in case it's necessary since this post is a revision of the original I made back then in 2017 but the Tumblr account was breached and deleted the pinned post (this one) so... yeah, there's that.
@ZeroDestreza on Twitter (Iâm not calling it âXâ, thatâs dum dum)
(Iâve always thought this line was brilliant â the tension of desire wrapped in aggression. Drew this piece based on that vibe a while back.)
âWhat is it, Rogers? Is it my warmth, or your scent... thatâs making this sweater too much for you to look at?â
Things suck right now. Who wants to join me in making paper crane chains? You don't need any special tools or artistic talent, it gives you something to do with your hands, and you end up with a pretty chain of paper cranes that you can either hang up, or throw away without feeling too wasteful. And if you do join me, post pictures in the reblogs! :)
Tools you will need: needle and thread, a pad of post-it notes, and sharpies/markers/crayons/etc. of your choice.
You can design your post-it any way you like - you can even draw a picture or write out a text. I usually make a simple pattern with around 6 colors. Start by just drawing a pattern - it can be simple or detailed, random or symmetrical, cured or angled - then add each color, line by line, until you fill the post-it.
How to fold a paper crane: https://savingcranes.org/learn/origami-cranes/
Additional pictures and commentary from me below the cut (skip if you already know how to fold a paper crane).
The first set - more to come tomorrow. :)
My army grows...
I have decided that I am going to make a crane "bead" curtain to cover the awkward little half-window that I never open. This will be frivolous and time-consuming and serve no purpose, other than the idea makes me happy.
Coping by turning feelings into paper cranes.
A side effect of this project is that I am going to accidentally find out how many unique sharpies I own. (For each crane I used a different color to draw the initial design, and I am slowly cycling through my whole stock.)
Unfortunately I succumbed to looking at sharpie sets online and it appears that there are, in fact, colors that I do not currently have.
I've never done gray cranes before, but I really like how they turned out.
BEHOLD MY FLOCK
Complete! This project made me very happy, and I hope it may bring you some joy as well. :)
I used this method to hang the cranes: https://youtu.be/4imAboG66Sg
They are gorgeous!
i think the near-extinction of people making fun, deep and/or unique interactive text-based browser games, projects and stories is catastrophic to the internet. i'm talking pre-itch.io era, nothing against it.
there are a lot of fun ones listed here and here but for the most part, they were made years ago and are now a dying breed. i get why. there's no money in it. factoring in the cost of web hosting and servers, it probably costs money. it's just sad that it's a dying art form.
anyway, here's some of my favorite browser-based interactive projects and games, if you're into that kind of thing. 90% of them are on the lists that i linked above.
A Better World - create an alternate history timeline
Alter Ego - abandonware birth-to-death life simulator game
Seedship - text-based game about colonizing a new planet
Sandboxels or ThisIsSand - free-falling sand physics games
Little Alchemy 2 - combine various elements to make new ones
Infinite Craft - kind of the same as Little Alchemy
ZenGM - simulate sports
Tamajoji - browser-based tamagotchi
IFDB - interactive fiction database (text adventure games)
Written Realms - more text adventure games with a user interface
The Cafe & Diner - mystery game
The New Campaign Trail - US presidential campaign game
Money Simulator - simulate financial decisions
Genesis - text-based adventure/fantasy game
Level 13 - text-based science fiction adventure game
Miniconomy - player driven economy game
Checkbox Olympics - games involving clicking checkboxes
BrantSteele.net - game show and Hunger Games simulators
Murder Games - fight to the death simulator by Orteil
Cookie Clicker - different but felt weird not including it. by Orteil.
if you're ever thinking about making a niche project that only a select number of individuals will be nerdy enough to enjoy, keep in mind i've been playing some of these games off and on for 20~ years (Alter Ego, for example). quite literally a lifetime of replayability.
since this post blew up, i've been wanting to do an addition with all of the recommendations from the comments and tags. but there's a lot of them. some people might be crazy enough to sit down and seriously put them all in one post with descriptions. those people are honestly sick in the head.
anyway, here's all of the recommendations from the reblogs. not all of them are text-based, but it's a great mixture of styles. also don't forget the links in the second paragraph of the OP which will take you to FMHY where there are a bunch more games listed.
Games
A Dark Room - text-based science fiction role-playing game.
corru.observer - science fiction adventure web game.
Improbable Island - old-school text adventure game.
Candy Box 2 - incremental clicker game that evolves into RPG.
Arcanum - open source wizard clicker game.
sandspiel, Powder Game, Powder Game 2, The Powder Toy - more sand physics games.
Orb.Farm - fishtank simulator.
Façade - experimental game with a real-time interactive narrative where you try to fix a failing marriage.
The Catacombs of Solaris - trippy art game.
Yume Nikki Online - online version of the surreal classic plus fangames.
The Barncle Goose Experiment - combine element/alchemy game based on antique theories of abiogenesis.
Fallen London - free-to-play text-based open world RPG.
Nested - very unique text-based universe expanding game. described as possibly @orteil42's favorite thing he's ever made.
The Process of Elimination - interactive web novel (by @hypertextdog)
Discworld MUD - multiplayer, text-based, online game (a MUD, or text MMORPG) based on the Discworld books.
Horse Master - surreal text game about training a horse.
EYEZMAZE - flash (RIP) or HTML5-based puzzle games.
You Are Jeff Bezos - text game. spend Jeff Bezos' fortune.
The Password Game - challenging puzzle game where you have to meet password requirements (by neal)
Universal Paperclips - incremental paperclip making game.
Half-Earth - planetary disaster planning game where you try to save the world using socialism.
ChooseYourStory - community-driven website centered on CYOA style story games.
PhD Simulator - random event based text game. make your choice each month and see if you can graduate on time.
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - open source roguelike.
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - turn-based survival roguelike set in the modern day.
Nethack - open source roguelike originally released in 1987.
FarmRPG - simple, mobile-friendly, text-based farming RPG.
Kingdom of Loathing - browser-based community MMORPG.
PokeRogue - browser-based Pokemon roguelike
Tools
Text Game Builder - works in your browser, with just a little bit of Python (by @grumpygandalf)
Twine - great (free!) tool for making text-based games quickly.
Ink - scripting language for interactive fiction (also free)
Flashpoint Archive - a community effort to preserve games and animations from the web.
PICO-8 - fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs.
Non-Games
Library of Babel - interactive illustration which attempts to simulate what it might be like to browse The Library of Babel.
Superbad - technically not a game, sprawling website full of secrets.
17776 - serialized speculative fiction multimedia narrative about football in the far-future. beautiful, creative, legendary. created by Jon Bois, a legend and one of my favorite writers of all time.
Choice of Games - text-based, choose-your-own-adventure games (interactive fiction). some free-to-play, others can be bought like an ebook.
The Deep Sea - scroll to the bottom of the ocean. encounter the humble squid and his friends (by neal)
Space Elevator - like The Deep Sea, but up instead of down. you can equip your avatar with a scarf (by neal)
Internet Artifacts - an interactive history of the early internet (by neal)
If The Moon Were Only One Pixel - scroll through an accurately scaled model of the universe.
r/incremental_games - reddit community for incremental games.
r/WebGames - reddit community for web games in general.
thank you to everyone who contributed and the creators. please be sure to show them some love where possible.
Tell me a soft memory
we would find out later i had burned off my entire cornea - about 65% of my eye. my doctor told me it is the organ with the highest concentration of nerve endings - i was in an amount of pain that can't be spoken.
and i was blind. for the first time in my life, i was totally blind. i kept thinking about reading, about writing. weirdly, just once, about driving. we had no idea if i would ever see again. just like that - my entire life was different.
it is a strange place to reference for a soft memory, to begin here.
my siblings were taking excellent care of me, but there was a moment in the hospital where, just through bad luck and timing - both of them had to step away for a moment. i was crying at that point; not emotionally. for 3 days after this i would still be crying, my tears, like a mermaid's, a frothy pink with blood.
my brother worried about leaving me. he had another, just-as-bad emergency.
"i got her," someone said. "don't worry."
a soft hand held mine, and then she started talking.
her name was jess. she has a wife named clyde. they live a few blocks up the street. clyde fell down, but the x-rays seem to be coming back better than expected. jess says she's got long dark hair and "more wrinkles than an elephant". jess describes every chair in the room and every person. she talks about her two kids and her cats and her favorite memories from college.
a doctor came. i had to switch to a different waiting room. i tried to stand up to follow the voice - i found jess's hand, following me. she didn't let go. she kept talking the whole way: lamp to your left, just a few more steps, okay to your right is the ugliest painting, good, now a little more walking straight, you got it baby
in the new silence of the next room she sat me down and called my brother for me, telling him where we'd gone to. and she stayed there for a bit, just chatting, her voice echoing in the eerie quiet. gently describing the room to me. and then someone was rude. from the sound of the voice, a kid, i think.
"why is she crying?"
"she just lost her vision," jess said. "she can't see."
"oh." said the kid. "that's scary."
the kid tells me he is here because he has peas stuck up his nose. that makes me laugh, his mom (?) groans. she tells me about the kid (he's 6, he likes paw patrol and eating cheese), about herself, about moving from cali.
jess says she's sorry, but she has to leave now, she's gotta go check on her wife.
"don't worry," says the mom. "i got her." and then i felt her hand press into mine.
for hours like that: i am taken care of by strangers. each person just talking with whatever comes to their head - not for any reward or celebrity or real reason, i guess. just because i am scared and alone and in the hospital and blinded and need to be distracted. not everyone even got told the story - they would just pick up in the silence with - oh by the way the television is playing HGTV - do you like that kind of a thing? yeah, me too, but could never quite get into those open-floor plans, i'll tell you -
by the time my brother is able to come back, the room is buzzing. we talk to each other like old friends, laughing, cracking jokes about if you don't like hospital food wait until you get on an airplane and can't believe i'm up past two in the morning what a party animal i'm becoming. i am holding the hands of someone named drew, who likes my crow tattoo and making crochet snails.
there are many dark moments full of pain in this world. this - in the low of absolute-dark, absolute-pain: people find a way to paint in it anyway. the color splash of their voices: this triumphant, radiating kindness of - let's be here together, let me help you, let's keep going.
i never saw their faces. i can't remember many of their names. but i think about them often, and the way we all took a deep breath - and did something gentle amongst the pain.
Most of us could probably stand to benefit from reading this. I did. Itâs really lovely.
hot artists don't gatekeep
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
Homie gonna share this
I'm turning 30 this month, and for some reason have become suddenly interested in material possessions. like what if,,,,,,,,my couch was nice. what if my sheets were nice. is this what happens to you??
I think a couple of things combine: you now have enough experience in the persistence of material objects to understand that if they donât actively fail, they continue to define the shape of your material existence. The four stainless steel forks you randomly bought for your first place are now the forks you might, conceivably, have for the rest of your life.
You also have experience of the world around you. You realize, by comparison with your friends who like nice things, that your forks are shit. Incidentally, you also realise that despite having made choices that were defined by being broke or frugal, you do not actually get points for having shitty thin-handled forks that are annoying to use. You donât get respect or appreciation or comfort or pleasure. After ten years of use out of $5 cutlery, you have inarguably gotten your moneyâs worth. You will get nothing else from them. You only get, forever, the experience of using shitty forks.
You have probably lived on your own for a few years now, perhaps even for more than a decade. Some items have fallen behind and been lost, thrown away, broken or failed; both others are still your companions. Depending on how nice they are, this is a source of comfort and frustration. Love to the hiking boots that have lasted! Affection and allegiance to the 20 year old band t-shirt! Disgust to the t-shirt bought last year that is sent to recycling for being so shit. Increasing admiration to the grand-grandmotherâs mixing bowl, especially compared to the 2016 purchase of a mixing bowl that couldnât handle the fast-paced lifestyle. Annoyance, disappointment and sorrow to smartphone case number 241, what the fuck. Smug pride in oneself for having the foresight, in an earlier house move, to splash out on a decent new mattress. As these items persist, you cannot help but notice that quality of materials/items is now obvious and visible, because youâve spent more time with them. A 22-year old newly in possession of two knives - a cheap shitty kitchen knife and a good one they inherited - will have spent the same amount of time with both objects; when youâre 30, youâve worked for 8 years with the good knife, while the cheap one (if you even recall ever having it) was thrown out in a fit of annoyance six years ago.
You have, at this point, in addition to using them, also handled and cleaned most of your possessions several times. You have realized, very materially and fundamentally, that you must care for these items for the rest of your lifespan, or theirs.
You are (possibly) out of the early desperate scramble to suddenly, instantly furnish an entire independent life (sheets, mattresses, winter coat, forks) with no money. This naturally led to restrictions on what you chose.
You are (possibly) out of the eaves of how you were raised. Many people spend their early twenties reconciling how they were raised with how they want to live. Perhaps you were raised to feel guilty for wanting things, such as toys or attention, which you later dutifully applied to things like education or new forks. Over time, you will have surprised yourself with how you met, identified, addressed, and reconciled these tensions from your upbringing; through conflict and resolution with parents/teachers/church/internet/social media, you have now arrived at what you have. If you had big things to confront, like coming out as queer, you may have thought this work was done. Now you suddenly find yourself confronting the weird beliefs you have that âyou donât NEED new forksâ or âitâs bourgeois to want thingsâ or âNOBODY spend ÂŁ200 on HIKING BOOTS, what are you, rich?â And you might find yourself feeling like, well, actually, Iâm grown-up and I hike and eat, actually.
So yes, I think that when you are 30 you are in the danger zone of getting a new couch.
"Even before Laurent had hit the ground, the man had drawn his sword. Damen was too far away. He was too far to get between the man and Laurent, he knew that, even as he drew his swordâeven as he wheeled his horse, felt the powerful bunch of the animal beneath him. There was only one thing he could do." -Prince's Gambit by C.S.Pacat
and a continuation of the same scene with more spoilers:
Just to remind myself how long I've been here
Also the exact date is 22 Sept (omg how đ)
sing, o muse, of the rage of achilles
Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo weâve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and itâs revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.
Might I add:
The defeat of the wizard who made people choose how theyâd be to be executed
The woman who raised the changeling alongside her biological child
The human who died of radiation poisoning after repairing the spaceship
The adventures of a space roomba
Cinderella finding Araura (and falling in love)
I donât know a snappy description but the my nemesis cynthia story certainly lives in my head
hilariously, these are almost all in my fic tag. so, a compiled list from the notes (and some extras):
The God of Arepo (graphic novel 1 / 2 / 3) (ebook)
The Monster of Sentan
The Witchâs Cat
Raise Both Children
Stabby the Roomba (honorable mention)
Cinderella Marries the Prince (comic)
My Arch Nemesis Cynthia
Pirates and Mermaid
Eindred and the Witch
The Demon King
The Cornerwitch
Grandmother Beetroot
Apocalypse Daycare Worker
Grandmother Accidentally Summons a Demon
New Year Saga
A Story About Changelings
Ranger in the Kingâs Forest
The Difference Between a Hare and a Rabbit
Goblin Men (Canines)
I am in love with you /p
What about the one with the princess locked in a tower learning to become a wizard? Thatâs lived in my mind for years and I havenât seen it in a long time
Oh, love that story, adding it to the list: 20. Princess Talia and adding a few more contenders 21. Thyme 22. The Monster under the Bed 23. A Meaningful Death 24. Humans are unstoppableâŚuntil they arenât 25. The Monster under the Fridge 26. Antler Guy 27. Cleric slamming healing spells
Adding a few more I remembered: 28. The Frog and the Scorpion 29. HSTHETE 30. The First Witch in the World 31. Imagine that Oceans were replaced by Forests 32. A Faerie taking a Name 33. The Dragon on the Farm 34. Synovus & Menace 35. Raising the Anti-Christ 36. Aliens vs. Flora & Fauna of Earth (pretty sure there are even more additions to the original post but I had this one saved) 37. Doctors without BordersâŚin Space! 38. The Villain-Wrangler 39. The Last Contact 40. The 100 Parent-Point Children 41. And the Heavens Wept 42. The Night Gentleman 43. The Serpent God and their PriestessÂ
Humans are unstoppable...Until they arenât.
Iâm not the most eloquent writer, but Iâve had this idea kicking around for a while and figured Iâd put it out into the universe.
A lot of the basis for the âhumans are space orcsâ stuff is the idea that weâre pretty durable compared to many species, yeah? When it comes to physical trauma, we can bounce back from most things that donât kill us outright, especially given the benefit of hypothetical space-age technology, and adrenaline is one heck of a drug when it comes to functioning under stress.Â
But that doesnât make us unkillable, and even though we can survive debilitating injuries and not die from shock, it doesnât mean itâs fun. Dying of shock sucks, but at least itâs probably quick.
So - Imagine a ship, adrift in space, slowly being drawn into a star or something. In order to save the ship, someone has to repair the hyper-quantum-relay-majig on the hull or in the engine or whatever. Bit of a problem though- thereâs a ton of deadly, deadly radiation (Wrath of Khan style) or poisonous fumes or, I dunno, electrical current, between the crew and the repair. Like, enough to kill most species instantly, so the crew is just like, âwelp, guess weâll die thenâ. But then.
BUT THEN
They ask the human. Because everyoneâs heard the stories - youâre basically unkillable, right? Could you survive long enough in there to fix it? And their human goes real quiet for a second, but still says âYeah, I could fix itâ. And the rest of the crew is like, âWhaaaaaa, it wonât kill you?â and the human repeats âI can fix itâ (which isnât an answer, but no one catches that, not yet at least), so they send âem in. And the human fixes it, they come back, the ship flies to safety, and the crew is thrilled to survive. If the human is a little quiet, well, theyâre entitled after pulling off a miracle. Everyone else is just excited to get to the nearest stationâs bar to tell their very own human story, cuz, âthose crazy humans, amiright?â.
The good mood keeps up until the human is late for their next shift. At first itâs just faint unease, but- but they earned a bit of a lie-in, right? No reason to begrudge them some extra rest, even if it is a little weird for them to oversleep. Theyâll be fine. Humans are always fine.Â
(Right?)
(âŚWrong.)
- What is⌠help. Help!-
- ake up! You have t-
- been days. You need sleep, you-
- nother transfusion. We could-
- out of sedatives!-
A week later, the crew finally reaches the station. They stumble into the bar, haggard and haunted. And over the next months and years a new rumor about humans starts to make its way through space. A rumor unlike any before.
âBe careful with your humansâ it whispers. âTheir strength is not always a blessing. Be sure they donât do something they canât come back from, because when a human dies⌠they die slowly.â
The thing is, humans can be tricky. And if theyâre sufficiently pack-bonded with a shipâs crew? And that crew is in danger? Theyâll willingly offer themselves up to make sure the crew survives.
They wonât tell their crewmates that whatever danger it is will just kill them slowly, that they can endure the exposure but not the long-term effects.
But the idea that humans can be fragile? Can die later from exposure to radiation or toxins or electricity or even smoke inhalation?
It seems preposterous!
There are too many stories about humans surviving all sorts of conditions that would kill their other crewmates. A human dying slowly, later, lingering and in agony? Itâs a creepy story but of course itâs not true.
But then⌠another crew shares their own story. Their human volunteered to go into the danger zone to fix what needed to be fixed. Or maybe she had to retrieve a critical component or resource. And she lingered. Wasted away. Later the human doctors told their medical team there was nothing they could do but make sure she was comfortable, ease her pain before the end.
And yet another crew, whose human plunged through smoke and ash to make sure his crew could escape. He choked and coughed and couldnât get enough air. Their medical commander performed an autopsy and found his lungs and throat and sinuses all coated in black soot and blackened mucus and red blood.
So the stories spread. Just because they donât die of shock, just because they donât die right away doesnât mean it wonât kill them. They linger in agony or unconscious or waste away slowly.
But whatâs most horrifying of all?
When other humans hear the stories from the traumatized crewmembers?
They arenât surprised or horrified.
They say âOf courseâ
They say âI would have done the sameâ
They say âit was the Right Thing to doâ
And theyâll smile (what the crewâs human would have called a sad smile) and toast to the dead. For making âThe ultimate sacrifice for the folks they lovedâ and every human listening will say the name and drink a shot of liquor.
When I was younger and more abled, I was so fucking on board with the fantasy genreâs subversion of traditional femininity. We werenât just fainting maidens locked up in towers; we could do anything men could do, be as strong or as physical or as violent. I got into western martial arts and learned to fight with a rapier, fell in love with the longsword.
But since Iâve gotten too disabled to fight anymore, I⌠find myself coming back to that maiden in a tower. Itâs that funny thing, where subverting femininity is powerful for the people who have always been forced into it⌠but for the people who have always been excluded, the powerful thing can be embracing it.
As Iâm disabled, as I say to groups of friends, âI canât walk that far,â as Iâm in too much pain to keep partying, I find myself worrying: Iâm boring, too quiet, too stationary, irrelevant. The message sent to the disabled is: Youâre out of the narrative, youâre secondary, youâre a burden.
The remarkable thing about the maiden in her tower is not her immobility; itâs common for disabled people to be abandoned, set adrift, waiting at bus stops or watching out the windows, forgotten in institutions or stranded in our houses. The remarkable thing is that sheâs like a beacon, turning her tower into a lighthouse; people want to come to her, sheâs important, she inspires through her appearance and words and craftwork. Â In medieval romances she gives gifts, write letters, sends messengers, and summons lovers; she plays chess, commissions ballads, composes music, commands knights. She is her householdâs moral centre in a castle under siege. She is a castle unto herself, and the integrity of her body matters.
That can be so revolutionary to those of us stuck in our towers who fall prey to thinking: Nobody would want to visit; nobody would want to listen; nobody would want to stay.
#itâs so so important to remember that representation is not one-size-fits-all#what is empowering to one person might be exhausting and oppressive to someone else#some people need stories about having the strength to save themselves#some people need stories about being considered worthy of being saved#some people need inspiration for their independence while others need validation that they donât have to be able to do everything themselves#before you lash out against something PLEASE stop to consider:#is this inadequate and/or damaging representation?#or is it just something I donât personally relate to? [X]
Itâs been half a decade and I still havenât found an articulation of the complexity of ârepresentationâ as concisely and precisely mindblowing as @hungrylikethewolfieâs here.
My adaptation of the God of Arepo short story, which was originally up at ShortBox Comics Fair for charity. You can get a copy of the DRM-free ebook here for free - and I'd encourage you to donate to Mighty Writers or The Ministry of Stories in exchange.
Again it's an honour to be drawing one of my favourite short stories ever. Thank you so much for the original authors for creating this story; and for everyone who bought a copy and donated to the above non-profits.
This story makes me cry every single time I read itÂ